Celebrating Natura 2000 Day with walks in the nature

On the 21st of May Bulgarian Society for the Protection of birds invites everyone who loves nature to their walks in protected areas of the network near three Bulgarian cities: Sofia, Plovdiv and Haskovo. Experts from the Saker falcon team will take part in the walk in PA Ponor. In the three cities the experts will show and tell the participants more about the species who inhabits the areas, and about the environmentalists work for their protection in the recent decades. More and more studies confirmed the significance of the nature to the human wellbeing and mental health which is still undervalued.

The event which requires registration is suitable for every nature lover as well as for the people who has more experience in the birdwatching. The event will be held on Sunday from 9 till 12 o’clock in the protected areas Ponor, Maritsa-Plovdiv, Reka Maritsa, and Zlato pole. In order to ensure good and quality time for all the participants their number will be limited to 15.

In the recent years BSPB encourages its followers to use the holidays around 24th of May to go out in the nature, birdwatch and gather information for the different species they see in via SmartBirds Pro mobile app. If you wish to join the ever-growing group of people doing citizen science, you can download the free app and start recording your observations there.

21st of May is an Open door day for the BSPB’s Nature Conservation Centres in Eastern Rhodopi and Poda near Burgas. They will work without an entrance fee for their visitors.

Natura 2000 is a network of protected areas covering Europe's most valuable and threatened species and habitats. The sites in the Natura 2000 network are designated under the 'Nature Directives', i.e. the Birds and the Habitats Directives. During the years of its existence it has proved the significance for the conservation of the habitats and the species against the growing anthropogenic threats.

Today the network encompasses over 18% of landmass of the EU and more than 9% of its marine territory. Thanks to the Natura 2000 EU has protected around 1400 animal species and 460 bird species. To this day the network in Bulgaria consists of 120 protected areas under the Birds directive, which covers 23.1% if its territory and 233 protected areas under the Habitats directive, which covers 30.3% of the territory. 

Photo: Dimitar Gradinarov